President’s Note: Kerr Center Prairie

This spring we burned the Kerr Center Prairie. I mentioned we would post photos of the prairie over the summer. Well, here is a timeline of photos from the prairie. I am happy to report that the tall grasses are moving in rapidly. Dominant tall grasses include big bluestem, switchgrass, and Indiangrass. It has taken over four years to get to this point. The spring and early summer showcased the most wildflowers, especially liatris. I hope to seed or plug some eastern gamagrass into the prairie to add diversity.

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Anyone who’s attended a Kerr Center horticulture workshop in the last umpteen years has been exposed to the idea that crop rotations confer numerous benefits both on the soils they’re carried out on, and on the crops that grow in those soils. Studies hot off the academic presses have just added more support to the notion.

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